Title - "Rurni Kenshin"/"Rurouni Kenshin"
Alternative title(s) - "Kenshin the Wondering Samurai"
Genre(s) - Sword action, comedy, drama, etc.

Here's a fact not many "Rurni Kenshin" fans know about. "RK" is the first series to have songs appear regularly on "Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ", a popular music program in Japan. This is due to the fact that "RK" brought in various Japanese pop artists to sing songs for the series. So, it is because of "RK" that many series now these days have J-pop artists singing songs for them.

"Rurni Kenshin" is a popular series by Watsuki Nobuhir-sensei. I might be wrong, but this is based on a 1994 manga and the anime came out a couple of years later, though I could have sworn it came out a bit earlier than that. There are 95 television episodes, two OVA series, and a movie.

The series mainly deals with the life of Himura Kenshin. Early on, he was known to be a deadly assassin. As the years went on, he promised not to be ruthless killer anymore. Kenshin goes on and meets various people.

"Rurni Kenshin" has a lot of Japanese history involved. The series takes place shortly after the Tokugawa era (after 1867). Many characters are based on historical figures. Oh and if you think the manga counts as literature, I don't think so.

Fun - 7

You have some, comedy, drama, sword fighting and overall, it's a fun series. Whether you have Kenshin's "Oro?" bits or him slashing down evil, you have a nice series here. No doubt about it!

The amount of unnecessary episodes in the television series here is the biggest flaw of the series as a whole. 52 episodes would have been fine for this series, but 95 is too much. Yikes! The highest I would have wanted would be 60 or so, but not 95. I don't think that it would take that long to tell the stories of Kenshin and such. Other than that and the pace of the series as well as how it ends, there is not much else to be worried about.

Life - 8

"Rurni Kenshin" is a solid series to keep for years to come. Of course, you have the many unnecessary episodes that will haunt you.

Story - 8

The anime is, in a good amount of ways, similar to Japanese history. The problem will be explained later on.

Audio - 7

Music - see what I said about "Hey! Hey! Hey!" and you'll get the idea.

The seiy if you ask me is really good, though you will think at times that in the television series, Kenshin is a bit too proper. This is not a bad trait, but it's a scenario that will get you thinking. The dub can be summed up in one word. "Oro - *?" That catch phrase of Kenshin sums up the dub. I don't know if I should like the dub in the OVA, since it is average to me, but the dub in the television series is, well, pathetic.

Art - 8

The art is solid overall. I love the designs of Kenshin, who is the only character that does not have a natural Japanese eye color. (According to the Anime Café, purple eyes are often used to show non-human traits in characters when they are strong in magical ability and such, especially in order to show demonic power or ability; thus you have Kenshin's superhuman ability with the sword.) Some of the other characters are fine as well like Seta Sojir. There are times when the art does not look as fresh as I expected though.

Overall - 8

"Rurni Kenshin" is one of the best series during the 1990's. If you have not done so, go out and watch this series. Just don't hope for too much in some of the episodes.

+

It's just a flat out solid series.

-

The direction, the amount of filler and the dub are the big three killers of this series.

Date of creation - 1/7/03

Last update - 8/10/04

* "Oro?" is an old way of say "Ara?" or "Huh?" if you don't know.

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